GM Xavier Kahlvet's Passing the Torch—Low Tier (Inactive)

Game Master KingTreyIII

Any order is fine, we can go deal with the fire

Peter replies,” Lets make haste and deal with each problem!”

@GM, before we get too far in here - were we able to find/know about a shop to get scrolls within the 25 minutes it took Peter to prepare/cast the Chariot spell?

"Marta, could I trouble you for one of your minor spells? True Strike into this Ioun Stone?"

"Glad to help. Hand it over"

Marta waits for Sir Hendric to pass the stone over rather than suffer the indignity of attempting to snatch it from its orbit. She then fills it with a True Strike spell.

"And my thanks to you, Bellamir, for the heroism. It means I will have one more burst of speed at my disposal, or I can cast a keen edge on my spear."

"One more thing. I have a new miracle to try out. Gather round."

Marta casts an extended Hunter's Blessing on the group with favored enemy being undead and favored terrain being Urban.

Gah, you all just keep adding new spells I need to get scrolls for. That one is awesome, especially if you know ahead of time what you are fighting. @Marta, If we are able to get scrolls, stick close to me and I'll get you a Holy Sword on your handwraps.

Gah, you all just keep adding new spells I need to get scrolls for. That one is awesome, especially if you know ahead of time what you are fighting. @Marta, If we are able to get scrolls, stick close to me and I'll get you a Holy Sword on your handwraps.

Marta specializes in 10 min or 1 hour/level spells and her list gets annyingly long even for me, the player. She just doesn't have time to cast spells in combat since she is already casting shield and wants to cast divine favor and... Well, if she cast all the spells she WANTED to cast for combat, she would not actually DO any combat. Thus the long duration spells by the bucket load. I wish she could cast barkskin. I have druid envy.

Holy Sword would be awesome, or you could cast it on her spear as the handwraps have a holy enhancement on it already and it would cancel the cruel enhancement. Still, +5 is better than +2/cruel for sure and I use UC a heck of a lot more often than the spear.

Also snagging a scroll ofdeath ward and heal.

”Those of the more arcane-oriented among us might enjoy a new trick of mine,” Arnaut offers, twiddling his fingers suggestively. ”A certain... something, to keep the music flowing a little longer.”

Arnaut can cast arcane concordance to make any arcane spells cast within 10 ft of him Extended. Could be useful for our buffs.

Gonna take you guys to the Mausoleum, because going to Starhall requires updating the Character Profiles, and I currently do not have access to my laptop.

*

Mindless undead occasionally meander out from within the Mausoleum, but opening the door to the crypt reveals a much more sinister truth:

The Mausoleum has become overrun by a horde of undead—no, not a horde, a flood! Every coffin, every sepulcher, every tomb has become flooded with the living dead—zombies, skeletons, crawling hands, beheadeds—and the Mausoleum of deceased Pathfinders has become a Pharasmin’s worst nightmare!

The undead mindlessly claw and rip at anything around them in an attempt to break their way out of the tombs that have become their prisons. They undead, scrambling for freedom, create a wall of flesh and bone that makes seeing beyond 10’ difficult—requiring a significant amount of time to try to catch a glimpse between the spaces of the undead.

When the doors to the Mausoleum fully open from simply being ajar, the corpses of once-Pathfinders spill out all over the Seekers, the beasts piling over one another in a tide of rot and bone to claw, grab, and rake at the Seekers! The minuscule undead largely fail to hit even the most unarmored of the Seekers, but 5% of their attacks manage to hit and deal minimal damage—but 5% of 10,000 is still 500, thus the minor wounds inflicted by a twentieth of these beasts still accumulate quickly into something deadly! There are specific rules for how these wounds accumulate.

What do you do?

Peter suggests,” There are literally other fires to put out. Perhaps we should wall off the mausoleum for now?

a wall of stone would contain the undead quickly, but the source of the undead within may be an issue. Anyone else have ideas ?

"If there is a necromantic force at work animating the dead in our Masoleum, destroying it could weaken our undead foe. Pete, is there anything you can summon that could either break through, or move untouched to scout?"

So we have to guess what the mechanism is. If the undead count as a swarm, Sir Hendric does have a swarmbane clasp. But if it is "the grasping hands do Xd6 damage per round as a terrain effect," as Sir Hendric faced in a recent game, then DR might be a solution. An angelic summons, perhaps. Or an incorporeal summons. Clairvoyance could also be a good spell to use here.

Peter replies,” It would be a good idea to weaken our foe. If the mausoleum is made of stone and earth an earth elemental may be the best scout. If not, an Azata possesses resistance to minor wounds and can fly rather quickly to scout. Not to mention they’re smart enough to recognize something out of the ordinary.”

I think Wall of Stone or maybe Wall of Fire to destroy them as they come through it? The issue with Wall of Fire is it only lasts a minute and a half, where Wall of Stone will remain until removed. I can throw down Fireballs, but that will quickly exhaust my resources.

@GM In the interest of moving us forward I’ll use summon monster IV to get 1d3+1 azatas or 1d4+2 small earth elementals, whichever appears to be a better choice for scouting. I’d imagine the azatas are better since they can move through the undead hordes (tiny, fly speed 80, huge fly bonus, constant freedom of movement, detect evil and magic and DR). If they find something we can go deal with it. They last 16 rounds.

Peter sends in four azatas to try and find any source of the tide of undead, but when the one minute, 36 second duration has finished, the azatas had yet to return.

What do you do?

“ Something within must have killed the Azatas. Hendric’s suggestion that these undead are tied to Vahlo, or the undead laying siege to Absolom seems probable, so a wall is not likely the best solution. I’m willing to go scout it out, or we can all enter the sea of undead.”

Does it look like we can fly above them? I have invisibility, a high stealth, and flight at my disposal right now. I can also dimension door back if I see something that I can’t deal with on my own

You feel like flight would avoid a not-insignificant number of the undead, but there are so many undead jam-packed together that you can't avoid them by flight alone.

EDIT: Also, you don’t know what exactly it is that you’re looking for, if anything at all (you can still make a Perception check to look in there, but it takes significantly longer than a move action as you have to look through the wriggling horde of undead.

"I don't suppose anyone can cast a barrier against undead or some spell to make us ethereal or gaseous or something?" Uneath Ward

Peter looks through the horde of undead, hoping to spot someone or something more powerful than a shambling zombie.

Take 10 for 43 perception

”Funny you should mention that, Marta - I do happen to have this dusty old scroll I’ve been holding onto for... well, let’s just leave it at a long time.” Arnaut pulls out a perfectly fine, not-dusty roll of parchment from his pack. ”It could work for one person, maybe two - perhaps someone would like to do some reconnaissance? I would be happy to relay messages to the rest of the group.”

CL 5 scroll with two castings of gaseous form on it. Couple that with a message spell (which could have been useful on the azatas) and we should be able to get an idea of what’s inside. Or send someone to certain death. Who knows?

"I like that idea though I do not like splitting the group. Perhaps our scroll master here, Bellamir, could make better use of the scroll and get us all in?"

"I am unable to do anything to help anyone else in Gaseous Form. It is useful for scouting, but only one of us needs to do that. I do not see a need to use so much magic to make us all subject to the spell."

After spending a solid 30 seconds trying to look through the mass of corpses, he catches glimpse of a strange pylon made of bone deep in the Mausoleum.

For the sake of transparency, I made a GM call that the literal feet of wriggling bone and flesh was enough to block the azatas’ detect magic; I understand that that’s not the RAW, but the fact that 3 feet of wood could block it but 40 feet of flesh couldn’t just seemed really weird to me.

Take 10 for a 37 spellcraft

Peter relays what he learned, “ 40 feet in is a pylon made of bone that appears to be animating these undead, and appears to have a further role. You’d have to make your way through the sea of undead to get there and either disable the pylon or brute force could be applied. I’d hazard that summoning a bison to trample some undead and destroy a pylon may be in order ”

The pylon isn't explicitly 40' in the Mausoleum, I just pulled that number out of thin air for the detect magic argument.

well it still stands to reason the bison could trample its way over, unless there is something making that impossible. That’s be my vote instead of sending a PC in to try that first and see what happens to our summon. He is quite a bit tougher that our Azatas and we should be able to watch him trample through to the pylon.

A pillar? Hmm, too bad I didn't grab that scroll of Disintegrate. Seems like just the sort of thing to come in very handy right now. Peter, are you able to summon any creatures that can cast such a spell or have Adamantine weapons by chance? I don't think I've any on my list. I'd also hazard a guess that we don't want to be too close to the pillar if we need to destroy it. Maybe it can be disabled?

At that thought, Bellamin casts Invisibility on himself and flies inside the room to take a closer look. He is as far above the heads of the zombies as he can be, but he wants to see if the pillar can somehow be disabled rather than needing to be destroyed outright.
Perception + Heroism and Heightened Awareness: 1d20 + 20 + 2 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 20 + 2 + 4 = 27
really? Guess those crits were the extent of my luck with the roller on these boards...

Marta also strains to see the pillar as they continue their discussion.

perception, heroism, hunter's blessing, heightened awareness: 1d20 + 26 + 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 26 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 50

"I see it. An odd contraption, no? We must destroy it of course.

"As an inquisitor of Ragathiel in combination with one of my judgment spells, I can augment a judgment to provide all of our weapons with the ability to cut through metal. So if it comes to that I do have a solution. And there is that holy sword spell. A weapon enchanted to such a degree will also cut through just about anything. And, finally, there is Trusted Buddy. He may come in handy yet.

"But how do we get there? Bull our way through or do one of you spellcasters have something fancier in mind?"

Marta looks ready to start now.

Marta has DR 5 vs negative energy due to the Aasimar ability Deathless Spirit if it matters.

Bellamin, I can’t tell fi that Perception check was for finding the pylon or for trying to see if it can be disabled; if the former then you fail to find it, but if it’s the latter then it’s the wrong skill you’re using (it’s the Spellcraft spoiler from above). I’m going to assume the latter with the rest of this post.

Ah, I missed the spoiler. The perception check was to see if it could be disabled. With a take 10 on the spellcraft, I'll have a 35, so will realize that we need to damage to the pylon, unless we have someone who can disable the magical traps. I assume it's an object so most spells won't work?

Bellamin flies out - Gonna need something to break it. Maybe head back out to the shop for a scroll of disintegrate? Or do we think a huge Elemental could get through it before falling to the zombies? With their tough hide, I'd bet the zombies will have a tough time hurting them.

@GM I also assume this is physical damage? Bellamin has resistance 10 to negative energy from his Nexus Crystal

It’s physical (generic zombies/skeletons/etc. can’t deal negative energy damage).

”Just be cautious - a horde of skeletons and zombies couldn’t have taken down those azatas that quickly by themselves,” Arnaut suggests, safely well out of reach of the grasping undead. ”And it would take a great marksman to shoot this pylon you all keep talking about from out here safely without hitting some stupid ghoul.”

”Perhaps we try the bison, and if it seems safe our gallant Sir Hendric can follow behind to skewer the source of foul magic upon his lance like a high priest’s torso. I don’t suppose Sentry can trample things like a hippopotamus, can she?”

"Frankly, I'm thinking speed is the issue here. We have to get out to the pylon, dismantle it, and deal with anything thrown at us, which will most likely be more than just these undead, while we do so. In fact, once we get next to the thing, be prepared for more odious affects than this simple hoarde. Getting there will not be as big of an issue as getting the structure destroyed in a timely manner. We will most likely need two teams. One to dismantle the structure and one to deal with whatever is thrown at us while they do so. The whole team should go and whoever has the skills should work on destroying the thing. But until we get close we will not know. Shall we advance? Anyone want to cast a stoneskin or something?"

"I like Pete's idea of sending in a bison to trample the undead, and watching from a distance what happens to it. As Arnaut said, skeletons and zombies should not have been able to kill the azatas so quickly. Something else killed them."

"Arnaut, I can grow Sentry to the size of an elephant, but unfortunately he cannot trample foes as such a beast can."

Peter says," If this works, we'll have finished the threat from the mausoleum. If not, I'll have lost one more minor spell. Either way, that seems less risky than Marta, or all of us, risking our lives. I'll follow it, watching from as safe as a distance as possible. Here goes nothing.

Peter summons his bison as close to the pylon as possible. He directs it to trample over anything in his way until he sees the bone pylon and smash it.

65 feet in is my casting distance and I'll get as close as possible. I'll follow the bison at the maximum distance that I can and still see it. When it starts attacking the magical trap, I will retreat far enough to break line of effect between myself and the pylon, and attempt to fly and look at it each round after the bison smashes. If it destroys the pylon completely (and isn't destoyed by the magical trap effect), I'll order it to trample back out to the entrance. If instead I get placed in initiative because something happens, I will not give it new orders (so it keeps smashing pylon), and I'll fly back out to the party.

Okay, so from the sounds of things, I’m guessing that Peter goes in there invisibly and summon the archon in there.

Even with flight, Peter finds pushing through the undead rather difficult and it takes him a whole minute to make his way to the pylon.

Damage to Peter and Bellamin (halve this to represent 50% miss chance): 5d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 2, 6, 2) = 13 So 6 to each.

Peter summons the hound archon and moves away while the archon smashes into it I’m going to assume that Bellamin does the same.

Peter, you also didn’t roll attack rolls for the summon; yes, it’s against AC 5, but nat 1s happen.

4d20 ⇒ (7, 11, 14, 20) = 52

After four attacks, the archon destroys the pylon, but it bursts in a wave of negative energy!

Archon Fort: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15

And the blast disintegrates the summon completely and utterly! The undead around the pylon become momentarily energized before returning to their previous ferocity a few seconds later.

What do you do?

Does it look like the pylon is rebuilding itself? Are more undead being generated now that the structure is gone? Can Marta even tell?

Does it look like the pylon is rebuilding itself? Are more undead being generated now that the structure is gone? Can Marta even tell?

Marta can’t tell, but from Peter’s view it’s not rebuilding. And everything frankly just looks the same.

can we take out the undead now or are the hordes still coming? It sounds like status quo, which means problem not solved? If not we may need to go back in and look for something else. If so, Peter does so again after relaying information to the party.

Peter returns to the party and relays all of the information he has learned,” The pylons can be destroyed by brute force, but doing so released waves of negative energy capable of obliterating a hound archon, no small feat.”

Do we have the dimensions of the room? I'm thinking that a wall of fire shaped into a ring (70' max diameter) could potentially contain/destroy all the undead in the room. Alternatively, we could just fireball it. I think that might wind up taking more resources though.

The Mausoleum is about 60’ by 30’ based on how it’s represented on the map.

It takes a minute for Peter to exit the Mausoleum.

Damage to Peter and Bellamin (halved): 5d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 4, 5, 1) = 15 So an actual result of 7

Before we burn them all, lets search it again for anything else.. peter suggests as he heads into the mausoleum once more.

perception: 1d20 + 33 ⇒ (18) + 33 = 51

After another 30 seconds, Peter spots a second pylon.

Peter returns and suggests,” Bellamin, I found another pylon. Can you summon a hound archon to deal with this one?”

"If there are more pylons, perhaps protect the Hound Archon with Death Ward. Or maybe use Planar Ally."
I see Pete is out of SMIV but Bellamin has one. The question is if it will last long enough to clear any other pylons, so Planar Ally might be better. I think the deity chooses what to send as Planar Allies but I don't know who Pete serves. Sivanah? Besmara? The Lantern King? I see N cleric with Trickery.

Chaldira Zuzaristan. Peter doesn't have planar Ally memorized. The pylon took out the summon, so I'm not sure what Ally would do to help. There can't be infinte pylons, so we can keep summoning them and see how many 4th level slots we use, unless you think it'd be better to use a 4th and a 5th from Bellamin and see how many pylons there are. I could keep looking to see if I find more pylons. I guess we can see what Bellamin wants to do with his slots. I could bumb up to SM6 if we wanted to go that route, but I figured it'd be better to keep using lower level slots from Bellamin.

The point of Ally was that it would last beyond this immediate task, so using Death Ward on it wouldn't seem quite as much of a cost.
Perhaps we should take Arnaut up on his scroll of Gaseous Form and more thoroughly search the Masoleum to determine how many pylons there are - while being (hopefully) immune to clawing skeletons and zombies.

Please take all these OOC conversations to the Discussion thread; don’t want to clutter up the gameplay thread too much (and I’ll admit to being guilty of that myself).

Bellamin summons a Hound Archon using a Summon Monster IV as far into the room as he can (Close range is 60ft). He directs it to attack the pillar, using Power Attack.

Attacks: 8d20 ⇒ (3, 3, 1, 11, 9, 16, 6, 7) = 56

Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 5) + 12 = 18
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (3, 2) + 12 = 17
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (2, 2) + 12 = 16
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (3, 3) + 12 = 18
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (5, 4) + 12 = 21
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (2, 6) + 12 = 20
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (6, 2) + 12 = 20
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 3) + 12 = 16
Damage: 2d6 + 12 ⇒ (3, 3) + 12 = 18

Marta stoically observes as the spellcasters neutralize the pylons. Being a combat centered (who's spells are somewhat self centered) spellcaster, she has little to add other than to observe and be ready in case melee is needed.

Bellamin smiles at Marta. Don't worry. It's a better investment for us to spend spells on expendable summons than to risk you dying in there trying to smash these things. I'm sure you'll get to hit things soon.
He looks around quickly, sees the Archon a good distance away inside the room and well out of earshot.
They always get mad at me when I call them expendable. Live in truth, I say.

"If there is more than one more pylon to smash, it would have been a 'better investment' to protect the Archon with Death Ward.
Not to mention more respectful of the Heavenly allies you are conjuring."

Sir Hendric knows that summons do not really die when killed, but even so it seems a bit wrong to treat angelic allies in this way. At least to his LG perspective.